Hi. Would anyone care to share a link or book on science fiction writing that contained useful tips? For a beginner?

Also, does anyone have opinions on story types that Analog, Lightspeed, Asimov, Clarkesworld prefer? Yes, I've read their writer's submission pages but I was wondering if anyone could share impressions on these publications. Thanks!

It's not a book, but the podcast "Writing Excuses" has been helpful to me. They also published "Shadows Beneath", a collection of 4 short stories+transcripts of writing group discussions about those stories, a first draft, a "diff" between that and the finished draft, and a bit from each author about their process.

Hi, I can advise to read the book "How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card. It`s paper book, but very good and explains clearly different tips for writing. I also read "Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Crawford Kilian that is quite short but useful enough. You can find it in the pdf.

edurbrow wrote:Also, does anyone have opinions on story types that Analog, Lightspeed, Asimov, Clarkesworld prefer? Yes, I've read their writer's submission pages but I was wondering if anyone could share impressions on these publications. Thanks!

One thing I didn't think to say last time is that you should read the publications you plan to submit to, if the list is small and you want to submit to the most suitable publications. Obviously, if you're casting your net wide, that may not be feasible, but you only listed a handful, so checking out a recent issue or two each would help a lot more than the general impressions of strangers on the internet could.